South Carolina's expected defensive strategy could lead to a big day for Tennessee's passing game
The Tennessee Vols' offense hasn't fully "clicked" this season as some of UT's new pieces continue to grow comfortable in Josh Heupel's scheme. A breakout game, however, feels like it's close for the Vols. Tennessee has shown glimpses of the explosive offense we saw last season. A 55-yard touchdown pass to Bru McCoy against Florida […]
The Tennessee Vols' offense hasn't fully "clicked" this season as some of UT's new pieces continue to grow comfortable in Josh Heupel's scheme.
A breakout game, however, feels like it's close for the Vols.
Tennessee has shown glimpses of the explosive offense we saw last season. A 55-yard touchdown pass to Bru McCoy against Florida and a 48-yard touchdown pass to Ramel Keyton against UTSA are reminders of what the Vols' offense can do when it's hitting on all cylinders.
And this weekend against South Carolina could be the game where Tennessee's offense finally puts it all together and has a vintage high-scoring "Josh Heupel game".
For starters, South Carolina's defense has statistically been the worst in the SEC this season.
Those stats aren't the only reason, though, why this could be the game where Tennessee's passing game finds its rhythm.
Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer essentially told reporters earlier this week how South Carolina plans to play defense against Tennessee (basically the same way they did last season).
"We play a lot of man coverage and get up in guy's faces," said Beamer on his weekly teleconference on Sunday evening.
"The way that we played defense, or the way we knew we were going to play defense that week (last year against Tennessee), essentially it was going to come down to a bunch of 1-on-1 plays, receivers and DBs, DBs versus receivers," added Beamer while speaking with reporters on Tuesday.
That's essentially how South Carolina played against Mississippi State last week.
Entering their game against the Gamecocks, Mississippi State was among the best in the nation at picking up yards on the ground.
As a result, South Carolina focused on stopping the run. And they managed to hold Mississippi State to just 32 rushing yards, but they gave up 487 passing yards to the Bulldogs (South Carolina won 37-30).
Beamer pointed out on Tuesday that Tennessee's also had an elite running game so far this season.
"They (UT) are the leading rushing offense in the SEC, so last week against Mississippi State, we faced the No. 1 rushing offense," said Beamer. "This week, we get to do it again. They ran for 303 yards against Texas-San Antonio on Saturday. This isn’t like they popped some runs and got their yardage up there. They’re handing the ball off 30-plus times a game. So we’ve got a big challenge on our hands to stop the run this week as well."
Based on Beamer's previous comments about man coverage and the way South Carolina focused on stopping the run against Mississippi State, I'd expect a similar approach from the Gamecocks against the Vols.
Tennessee hasn't shown this season that they can beat teams through the air. But they've shown that they can gash teams on the ground. It absolutely makes sense for South Carolina to focus on stopping the run by loading the box and playing man coverage on the outside.
The Vols can exploit that approach if they're more consistent offensively — Heupel is at his best when he can scheme up one-on-one mismatches.
But that means no getting behind the chains for Tennessee. And the wide receivers have to be on the same page as the quarterback. Otherwise, big opportunities will turn into frustrating misses and the Gamecocks will leave Neyland with a win.
If Tennessee can find its rhythm on Saturday night, then this could be the offensive explosion that Vols fans have been waiting for all season.
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